A novel lime-mud-reburning system is described wherein lime mud is dried in a steam dryer and then calcined in a fluidized bed. Energy in the flue gases leaving the calcination unit is recovered in a flue-gas boiler. Calculations show that a system with a steam dryer utilizes the energy input better than conventional systems, where flue gases dry the lime mud. Experiments in a pilot-scale steam dryer show that lime mud (initial dry solids of 69-71%) was dried to >99% dry solids. The dried lime mud was then heated and calcined in a pilot fluidized-bed reactor at about 900° C The resulting "soft burned" lime was highly reactive during slaking and causticizing. However, it produced a lime mud with a higher specific filtration resistance than reburned lime from industrial rotary kilns.